Monthly Archives: February 2011

I do not inhabit the world of media folk, I do not inhabit the world of money and fame, but Charlie Sheen is such an inhabitant. His show, “Two And A Half Men,”(which I have never seen and have no intention of ever viewing) earns this man at least $1.8 million an episode. For the rest of us who inhabit the world of work, stress at meeting bills, the thought of such money simply is not part of our daily thinking. But, Charlie Sheen is angry. He lashed out at Chuck Lorre, the producer and verbally assaulted the man whom he termed a “little maggot.” OK, “maggot” is not the worse insult, but Sheen just could not keep his mouth shut. He went on an interview show with Alex Jones and proceeded to refer to his “enemy” as “there’s something this side of deplorable that a certain Chaim Levine, yeah, that’s Chuck’s real name….” Ah, the Jew in the wood pile, if he is there then it is apparent the Jew is up to no good.

Charlie never knows when to shut up. He went on to state, “if you love with violence, and hate with violence, there’s nothing that can be questioned.” Sorry, Charlie, there is something that can be questioned, your intelligence, your dignity and your human qualities of love and respect for those who are different.

English author, Ian McEwan, speaking at the opening ceremony of the Jerusalem International Book Fair, he urged Israelis to end their nihilistic approach to dealing with the outside world and their neighbors. He decried Hamas Nihilism which sends suicide bombers to kill the innocent, but that behavior was equalled by Israeli nihilism which sent rockets into the home of Gaza doctor Izzadin Abu Eilash and killed his three daughters. McEwan blasted continued “evictions and relentless purchases of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the process of the right to return granted to Jews, but not to Arabs, the so called facts on the ground of hardening concrete over the future, over the future of Palestinian and Israeli children who will inherit the conflict and find it even more difficult to resolve than it is today.” The author urged an end to further settlement construction. His remarks were generally met by silence from the audience.

A basic question raised by McEwan was, “what is to be done” in order to attain peace. The time has come, he urged for Israel to avoid the continued “retreat into a bunker mentality.” We support his comments and, as a Jew who has the right to return to Israel which is denied by Arab brothers and sisters, we urge the end of nihilism.

Underneath the calm outward appearance between President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin, there beats a quiet simmering conflict as to who will run for president next year in Russia. Imprisoned business leader, Mikhail Khodorkovsy warned the people of his nation a return to the presidency by Putin would send a signal to the world’s business community that Russia is not the best place in which to invest. “If Putin runs in the election, ” he said, “this would mean that the peaceful transition of power has failed.” It reinforces belief that Putin wants power, will seek power, and will not readily surrender power to someone over whom he lacks control. A recent poll of Russians reveals that 34% believe there might be public unrest if Putin retruns to the presidency.

Hopefully, Vladmir has seen the winds of change in the Middle East and considered whether those winds will rush over the Russian sky.

Riots are sweeping through many Arab nations, but we are pleased to report there are no riots in Saudi Arabia. Heck, when members of the armed forces learned their beloved king was returning home after a hospital stay in America, dozens volunteered their blood. We walked through the streets of the capital city and all we could see were covered up females whose eyes did not meet mine, men with beards checking the length of dresses, and no women driving a car. Think about it, no women driving cars means fewer car accidents. No women driving cars means no back seat grumbling which translates into safer driving and fewer accidents.

This is a truly a democratic nation. Any prince can grow up to become the king or at least get a high salaried position in a government corporation. This is truly democracy in action. Every married man knows when he gets home there will be a dinner prepared by his wife–of course if you have four wives it is a guarantee that at least one will cook the meal. And, think of schools which are all boy or all girl and no fooling around during recess. Better grades, fewer pregnant girls, and a happier school.

There are no demonstrations in Saudi Arabia because people know a benevolent ruler is a wise ruler. OK, so sometimes he wields the ruler, but you deserved the slap on the hand. Remember, the king is the hand that feeds you.

People are in the streets of Libya demanding that Muammar Gaddafi leave the premises as soon as possible, but along with their seizure of towns in eastern parts of the country is news of a new kid in town–Al Qaeda. Former Guantanamo prisoner, Abdeikarim al-Hasadi is now in charge of the new group. “Al-Qaeda has established an emirate in Derna” he announced to the world. They already has set up an FM station and we should expect within coming days news of people being executed and the installation of a Sharia court. Al-Qaeda’s presence just a few hundred miles away from the European Union raises interesting questions as to whether the new group has support of the Libyan population or whether it is a short lived venture into the spotlight.

So far, the “Tunisian flu” has spread word that people want democracy and so far there is no evidence the youthful revolution seeks installation of clergy dominated governments as in the case of Iran.

Interviews with members of the Tea Party and many bystanders at recent demonstrations in Madison, Wisconsin, reveals a strong belief their state’s economic problems are the result of lavish payments to government employees. There are constant complaints about extravagant retirement payments, lavish health benefits, and the good life for those who work for the government. State averages reveal the medium teacher salary is about $51,000 a year. That breaks down to about $4000 a month, and after federal and state taxes the family will have about $3200 a month to enjoy the good life of a wealthy person. Governor Walker is simply another in a string of Republican lawmakers who seek to gain power and fame by taking on teachers, firemen and policemen who they cast as the source of our $13 Trillion debt. Republicans wail about extravagant civil servant salaries while granting the wealthy in our nation untold riches through means of lower taxes.

Do many civil servants receive excessive pensions, most probably that is a reality. But, if one added up all the pensions paid to civil servants this year it would be less than the $140 billion bonus payments to Wall Street bankers the past Christmas. The fault lies not in schools, it lies in the banking establishments of this nation.

As one reviews presidents over the past fifty years an interesting perspective emerges. It is difficult finding an American president during this time period who actually accomplished important goals and met the desires of Americans. Our initial presidents from Washington to Madison all were re-elected and all have gone down in history as successful in one aspect or the other. None faced charges of being unethical, none were rejected by their own party and all left office in fairly good shape.

Lyndon Johnson in the sixties got us into the Vietnam War and wound up being so hated by the American people he did not run for re-election. He was followed by Richard Nixon who would up facing impeachment charges and resigned. Gerald Ford stumbled through the two years left of the Nixon presidency and was defeated. Jimmy Carter told Americans the truth about energy issues and was defeated after Iranians seized American hostages. He was succeeded by St. Ron Reagan who promised lower taxes, less government, and ending the national debt. He raised taxes, doubled the national debt and increased government employment. He had great press agents. Reagan was followed by George Bush I who promised not to raise taxes, actually raised taxes and was defeated by Bill Clinton. Clinton tried to get Americans to accept a national health plan, ran into a buzz saw of negative publicity by health care folk and wound up facing impeachment charges.

Along came George Bush II, who was having a miserable time in office until Muslim terrorists saved him by crashing planes into the World Trade Center. George lied and lied his way through Iraq and wound up being hated. Along came Barack whose Ivy League background persuaded him to go for health care rather than for jobs and you all know the result. We now have among the dumbest or most ignorant Congress members in the history of the United States of America. What can we learn from these stories?

1. The last thing Americans these days wish to hear is the TRUTH.

2. Americans are among the most ignorant people on this planet when it comes to economics. They voted for Tea Party candidates who promised to reduce taxes which means less money for the government while being able to reduce the national debt. huh!

3. This generation of Americans will NEVER be referred to as the Greatest Generation.

SUM UP

If you want to be elected president of this nation just:

Promise to reduce taxes.

Promise to end taxes on the wealthy.

Promise you will create jobs by repeating ten timers a day: “there will be more jobs.”

Promise those who have health care that you don’t give a damn about those who do not and let them all die–AS LONG AS THOSE WITH HEALTH CARE DON’T HAVE TO PAY A DIME FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT HAVE IT.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu functions under the assumption if there is any problem in foreign affairs, never look in the direction of Israel because in every single case, the fault lies with some Arab and Muslim nation. He warned the world that current demonstrations in Egypt or Tunisia or elsewhere might well summon up the forces of Islamic extremism. In making this point, the prime minister cited behavior of Turkey which allegedly turned on Israel, relations between the two nations, “evaporated overnight when the Turkish prime minister attacked our president in Davos, today we want to guarantee that the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan will remain solid.”

In reality, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan was horrified at actions of the Israel Defense Force in Gaza and urged a halt in killing civilians. If Israel had dealt with the Gaza situation in a more peaceful manner, Turkey would not be upset. It was actions on the part of Israel that resulted in anger. Secondly, Erdogan vocally attacked the Israel president and nothing prevented President Peres from responding in a vocal manner. Since when is it an “attack” to express a viewpoint?

About fifteen years ago, Congress passed the “Defense Of Marriage Act” which declared that only marriage between a man and woman was to be considered involved in a state of matrimony. During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama expressed his personal concerns about allowing same sex marriage although he was uncertain whether there should be such a law. Yesterday, the Attorney General, Eric Holder, made clear the Justice Department would no longer support the law based on constitutional grounds. “The president has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard.” After analyzing data, the Justice Department does not believe the law meets those standards.

Of course, any intelligent person wants same sex or opposite sex or whatever to marry one another. However, one can only be suspicious that at a time of economic disaster for millions this topic has to be brought to center stage and create anger and animosity.